Arrest of The Nation editors: We acted on OBJ’s petition – IG

Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Abubakar Ringim explained yesterday that the police arrested four editors and three non-editorial staff of The Nation newspapers following a complaint lodged by former President Olusegun Obasanjo who alleged that a letter purportedly written by him to President Goodluck Jonathan which was published by the newspaper was forged.

Group predicts higher phone subscribers base in Africa

The positive prediction about Africa being the final gold mine continues as the Guardian reads that a report by South Africa-based Standard Bank Group has predicted that mobile subscription in Africa will reach 800 million subscribers by 2015.
According to Mr. Simon Freemantle, an economist and author of the report, said Africa had about 500 million mobile subscriptions in 2010, up from 15 million in 2000 and will hit 800 million by 2015.
He posited that, over the next five years East and Central Africa will enjoy the highest mobile subscription growth rates in the world, with three quarters of the increase expected to come from Uganda, Nigeria, Egypt, Tanzania, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Kenya and Ghana.

Enugu House considers bill to check kidnapping, others

A BILL that will check kidnapping, armed robbery and other social crimes is now before the Enugu State House of Assembly.
It is aimed at mandating the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications operators to release prompt and vital information to the security agencies within a stipulated time to help them track criminals who use GSM to commit crimes.
The bill stated that failure to provide such information within a stipulated time could attract penalties ranging

Delta state govt sacks 16 doctors over strike

it was repoted in the Guardian that "for participating in a strike, which allegedly grounded medical activities in the state-owned hospitals in Delta State, a total of 15 doctors have been sacked by the state government.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joseph Otumara, who spoke with reporters yesterday in Asaba, defended the sack, insisting that the action became necessary because allowing the doctors to go away with frivolous excuses all in the name of strike would send a wrong signal to other workers in the state.

Government unveils plan to reduce pain of subsidy removal

As gathered from the Guardian, "the direction the planned deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry would take in 2012 was given by President Goodluck Jonathan and other senior public functionaries yesterday.
First the policy will be executed in phases and in a responsible manner, Jonathan said. This responsible manner was explained by a top government official as the inclusion of a range of palliatives to cushion the effects arising from the removal of fuel subsidy next January.
Jonathan, who for the first time commented on the controversial policy since he submitted his Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) on October 4, 2011 to the National

Stella Obasanjo, Diya, Useni Others Lose Prime Lands In Lagos

According to NigeriaPlus, "the Lagos State Government has cancelled 562 prime land allocations to prominent citizens and organisations in the highbrow Lekki Peninsula Schemes I and II and Abijo Government Reservation Area for failing to pay the prescribed fees.
Some of the prominent Nigerians affected by the cancellation are one Stella J. Abebe (suspected to be the late wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo); former Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Oladipo Diya; former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Lt. Gen. Jerry Useni; former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the late Clement Akpamgbo; former Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin; and former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Abiodun Ogunleye, and his wife.

FG Uncovers 71,135 Ghost Pensioners

According to NigeriaPlus, "the pension reform tax team has uncovered about 71,135 ghost pensioners after the first phase of its biometric and verification, THE PUNCH learnt on Thursday.
The team was mandated by the Federal Government to restructure and sanitise the system.
Investigations revealed that before the biometric exercise, there were about 141,792 pensioners throughout the country with a total monthly pension of N3.3bn.